The Polish director Kieslowski became a "hot topic" in the world film circle in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of his "Ten Commandments" series, which also made him named as a rare "post-master era". world-class talent". In 1987, his fourth feature film, and the first of the Ten Commandments (although it was number five in the Ten Commandments), Short Film About Killing ("Killing Commandments" for short), was for him. He won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Felix Award for Best Feature Film at the European Film Festival, and the Golden Bear at the Gdansk Film Festival in Poland. Thus began his "Ten Commandments" series of global shock and conquest.
Kieslowski's filming of "The Ten Commandments" was an opportunity and a choice for him. In a sense, Kieslowski is quite traditional: he believes that himself, an artist, should above all be faithful to the content of society, audience, people and art. In his view, under a series of social changes and shocks, the public disillusionment in Poland was disillusioned, and society gradually fell into indifference. "Everything is chaotic. No one really knows what's right, what's wrong, or even why we're continuing to live." So, "We thought maybe we deserved to go back to the simplest, most fundamental, most important principles that guide people's lives." To express this principle, or morality, or norm, Kieslowski chose The Ten Commandments at the suggestion of his creative partner, screenwriter Piesiewicz. He claims to be an "ancient" humanitarian. In Kieslowski's case, humanitarianism is not kitsch sensationalism or cheap optimism, it is not even a ray of tolerance or warmth; it only means the most basic expectations and trust in people, it is just a burst of grief , an ultimate line of defense, a pessimistic but not desperate other shore.
Perhaps the "Killing Commandments" is the most typical of the "Ten Commandments". The dilemma involved in The Commandment to Kill is like a spell of despair, an Escherian nightmare world. It is far from a special predicament of modern society, or of modern civilization, but a vicious circle as old as human society. If we say that respecting life and the sanctity and dignity of other people's lives is the end of civilization, it is the basic morality and necessary taboo of human beings, and it is the last line of defense for humanitarians; Always a sin, a heinous crime. As a result, "killing people for their lives" seems to have become the "eternal law" that is justified. Revenge against the murderer is the oldest act of justice and the voice of justice. However, in the sense of respecting life, and in the sense of "Thou shalt not kill" in the "Bible Ten Commandments" as a person's authority, the crimes committed by murderers in various names or without names, and the avengers in justice The actions in the name of the law and the execution of the death sentence in the name of law/punishment also constitute a trampling on the dignity of life, harm to human life, and an arrogance of human rights. But not using the death penalty to complete the punishment for homicide is not enough to show the sanctity of other people's lives, and it is not enough to constitute a deterrent to those who want to take others' lives without authorization; and the execution of the death penalty is undoubtedly a social atrocity. Become the self-devaluation and self-blasphemy of human civilization. Approving and opposing the death penalty has always been a topic of disagreement in legal circles, and it has also become one of the ultimate dilemmas of humanitarianism. It seems to have to make a choice between two kinds of atrocities, but this choice cannot be made: both are harm to life, but one of them has been protected and recognized by the system. However, refusing to make a choice, or choosing to be a radical opponent of the death penalty, is equally hypocritical, or a display of powerlessness and weakness.
Compared with other chapters in the Ten Commandments, the narrative composition of The Commandments of Killing is much simpler and more precise. Except for the prologue (a sequence of shots) and the epilogue (a scene), the entire film consists of four large combined segments. The first major segment is a parallel narrative segment alternately showing the murderer Jacek wandering aimlessly, the victim taxi driver Ward Mara's preparations before getting out of the car, and the future defense attorney Piot's legal qualifications. take an exam. The second big group segment is Jacek's brutal, cold-blooded murder. The third big combined segment is Piot's confusion after the death sentence. The fourth major combination segment is an alternate narrative combination segment. Together with the conversation between Piot and Jacek before execution, the executioner, the prosecutor, and the prison director are prepared to execute the execution, and the whole process until the execution is presented. The main part of the film is a detailed and chronological presentation of the two major paragraphs of murder and execution, which constitute a continuation of the film's unbearable killing. In "Killing Commandments", it is defense attorney Piot who makes a weak protest and struggle against this double atrocity. But in the specific context of The Commandments to Kill, Piot's battle for a doomed cause doesn't even make him a Sisyphus hero, but instead makes him an incompetent coward in the face of harsh reality, A vulnerable idealist, a loser in multiple senses. He can only be an incompetent confessor, but just as he cannot save Jacek's life, he can't save Jacek's soul: he cannot forgive sins, and perhaps promise a new life.
In "Killing Commandments", the film's narrator is absolutely detached, and the fixed, moving camera perfectly constitutes a detached, documentary style. At the same time, the narrator of the film is fully involved, and the film presents an unprecedented stylized feature: almost all shots are changed by the attached color filter to their "natural" color; from muddy green to brownish yellow. , showing a monotonous, gloomy, dirty impressionist style. Coexisting with the documentary style in "Killing Commandments" is an almost naturalistic presentation of events. The events and characters in the film seem to have been taken into the footage by extreme accident and uncut. However, the whole film has a strict, almost classic "three in one" narrative structure: well-proportioned and clear.
"Killing Commandments" is undoubtedly a film about death - "unnatural death" in peacetime, in fact, there are two complete, overly complete, detailed, objective passages in the film to present two deaths/ the process of killing. In the passages where Wadmara was killed, life showed his astonishing tenacity and tenacity. Compared with death, the taxi driver has an excessively strong life and an almost animal instinct to survive, so that the murderer Jacek had to use three weapons: rope, iron rod and stone to kill three times. But in this passage, the tenacity of life is not so much a tribute to life as it is to highlight and color the filth and ugliness of death and killing. The film's two death/killing sequences, shot in a detached, documentary style, are also carefully constructed as a dramatic counterpoint. The ruthless and murderous murderer Jacek repeated almost everything his victims showed before the death penalty: the same tenacious and cowardly desire to survive, the same instinctive and ineffective struggle and resistance. Although one is a despicable murder and the other is a just execution, the murdered are also presented as hopeless, helpless and confused. Although the film is full of documentary presentations of incidents and inaction, in fact, there are many dramatic coincidences in the film. A series of coincidences make these three passers-by who may never know each other and meet in a fateful connection, just like a "Samara date" - an invitation from death. However, Kieslowski constructs these coincidences without emphasizing them. Of course, they are not a sigh of "the world is really small", nor is it a kind of recognition and helplessness in the sense of fatalism; they just present a cruel "opportunity", and Kieslowski's world is a "crossing path" garden".
This is a story of death and killing, but its true meaning lies in life. Despite the confusion and questioning, Kieslowski remains the last line of humanitarian defense in a dilemma. Facing the modern world, facing evil and crime, facing the dilemma of civilization, while still writing life in capital letters.
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